


say it, say it out loud (vampire)

by peraltiagoisland



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/M, if the sex gets really graphic i’ll change the rating, jfkdjf also maybe future sex, rated m for cursing and vampires :), this is a vampire soulmates au, to an e lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-03-07 01:24:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18862900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peraltiagoisland/pseuds/peraltiagoisland
Summary: Jake decides that maybe being a vampire isn’t so bad when he realizes that his knowledge of self is incredibly useful in his senior year pair project with the most beautiful girl he’s ever met. But when she starts to show interest in him beyond the boundaries of a wholesome educational partnership, he starts to worry that he’s deluding her, and he fears more than that, how horrified she would be if she knew what he truly was.





	1. a song of vampires and vampires

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimer: i have never seen, or read, twilight
> 
> okay, carry on!

Oh god, he’s feeling it again.

The thirst. His throat is parched like he’s been crawling around a desert for days. When he was in fourth grade, the gym teacher Mr Jeffords caught him making fun of the warm-up exercises, slacking off the mile-long run, and cracking jokes about his muscles. In Jake’s defense, he was only doing that because he thought Mr Jeffords’ muscles were really big and cool, and all he wanted to do back then was run into his teacher’s arms, knowing he could probably catch him every single time.

But Mr Jeffords didn’t know that, and he sure as hell didn’t believe Jake when he told him that, so Jake was forced to run around the track after school until he was dismissed. Jake remembers being seconds away from passing out before he was told to stop. It was as if Mr Jeffords knew his limit, wanted to push him towards it without going over. That feeling he had back then, that close-to-death experience, that nausea upon fatigue, is exactly what he’s going through now.

Only this time, he doesn’t have Mr Jeffords to blame, but rather his best friend. A certain Gina Linetti.

She gently kicks him in the shin and her toes are like bricks crashing into brittle bone.

“Gina... tell my mom I love her. Tell my dad ‘cool hiding spot’ if you ever find him.” He coughs into a weakly balled up fist. “God, it’d be so cool if you found him. You could get hired as a secret agent at the FBI.”

In true Gina fashion, she rolls her eyes. “God, chill out you huge baby,” she scoffs. “You’re not dying, idiot. You’re immortal, remember?”

“Yeah, and whose fault is that?”

Arguably, they both have a bit of blame in this. About a week ago, Gina hooked up with what she described to him as ‘a super emo, super mysterious girl. Curls to die for, dangerous eyes’, but it was apparently, also according to Gina, a one time thing. During that one time thing, because of, maybe the heat of the moment or something, Gina was turned by her hookup and became... a vampire.

Literally a day after she figured this out, Gina told him she didn’t want to be the only vampire she knows, and tried to convince him to let her turn him. Jake, unfortunately, in his younger, more naive days, where he was susceptible to his best friend’s top notch manipulation skills, as well as his admittedly sad predisposition of... ‘copying her’ (not Jake’s own words, clearly Gina’s, clearly slander, clearly untrue), he... well, he. He agreed.

So here he is now. Day two of being a vampire. And absolutely hating it.

She smacks him at the back of his neck for being rude, and he cries in excruciating pain. Both because he’s on the verge of what feels like death (but somehow, still isn’t death) and because Gina’s really good at smacking people in the back of their necks.

“Ow, fine, fine, it’s my fault. But Gina, this sucks! Being a vampire _sucks_. I can’t eat pizza, I can’t eat sour gummies, and I’m gonna be eighteen forever. Forever!”

She slaps him this time, but in that slightly gentler way that’s largely to help snap him out of this wave of hysteria he’s riding.

“Bitch, you’re not gonna be eighteen forever. Your body’s gonna continue on its puberty journey until you become a grown ass man. Then you stop aging. You should be _thanking_ me, asshole. Also, yeah, fine, you can’t eat pizza or candy anymore, but at least you still get to drink water.”

“Wait,” he sits up, shakily, “I can still drink water? I thought vampires only drink blood.”

“As food and sustenance, yeah. But we still kinda have to drink water for hydration purposes. We’re not savages. You didn’t try to drink water yesterday to see if you could?”

“Well I,” he scratches his head. “I was kinda busy trying to eat anything I’ve ever loved. And uh, well, I uh, I don’t. Tend to. Drink water.”

The horror on Gina’s face makes him want to run. Sadly, he can’t use his legs. Because he didn’t drink any water, apparently. Maybe he deserves any punishment she mets out. Maybe his dehydrated state is the punishment.

“Oh my god, you’re hopeless.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel great,” he limps over to the kitchen, and pours himself a glass of tap water. He takes a sip, and feels better, obviously, but god, at what cost? “Hey, if I can drink water, does that mean I can drink orange soda too?”

“No.”

“Why not?!”

“I read it up on the vampire internet. Our options are water, blood, or nothing.”

“Wait, there’s a vampire internet?”

She sighs, shaking her head. “God, you really are a newbie vamp, huh.”

“I mean, I’ve been a vampire for all of two days, so uh, maybe forgive me for not being a all-knowing vampire overlord yet?”

“I’ll think about it.”

He laughs, and she gets caught up in it too. Feeling a lot better, he grabs some ice from the freezer and dumps it in his glass. Experimentally, he opens a bottle of orange soda and adds in about a shot of the stuff. He nearly pukes when he drinks it. He feels absolutely horrible, just like he did when he tried pizza and sour gummies yesterday. And burgers. And fries. And ice cream. And pretty much anything he could get his hands on until he vampire-passed out.

Gina looks up from her phone when she hears him choke. “Oh my god, what did you do?” she spots the opened bottle of orange soda and exhales in that _god I should’ve known this would happen_ way. “Why’d you put that in there!”

“I thought,” he coughs, “I thought it’d be like, I dunno, mixing alcohol in punch or something! How was,” he gags, swallows, takes a careful breath before speaking again. “How was I supposed to know it’d taste this bad?”

“In what world does water with a shot of orange soda taste good for anyone?!”

Jake falls to the floor, his world blurring at the edges. “Oh crap, Gina, Gina, I think this is,” he rasps, “I think this is the end of me. The end of, of... Jake–“

“You’re not gonna die, idiot. Don’t make me say that again.” She pulls him up to his feet, and all of a sudden, he feels better. Maybe vampire food poisoning is only a temporary thing. Maybe that’s why he kept waking up after he passed out from eating something yesterday (only to eat something else and pass out again).

“Oh, right, the immortal thing, yeah.”

Gina grabs her purse and throws it over her shoulder. “Come on, I’m taking you to the vampire hospital.”

His eyes widen as he follows her out the door. “There’s a vampire hospital?!”

 

* * *

 

Holy shit, there really _is_ a vampire hospital.

Jake’s eyes pan left and right repeatedly, unable to believe any of this is real.

So, apparently, from what he’s observed and from the many, many questions he’s posed to Gina, this is a place that’s meant to look like a regular hospital, but what they really do is recuperate any vampires with any life-threatening issues (so, Jake can’t die because he’s a vampire, but he could also still totally die... because he’s a vampire). They also give out blood to vampires who can’t get it for themselves. _Kind of like a soup kitchen,_ Jake imagines. _But with blood._

“Common ailments we have to watch for are your usual garlic exposure, overexposure to sun without applying vampire sunscreen, stake-in-heart, and our heads getting chopped off. The last ER patient that came in had his head attached to his shoulders only by a little sliver of skin. Thank god we managed to sew him back up to save his life.”

“Oh damn, this _is_ like a soup kitchen,” Jake observes, seeing a very obvious soup kitchen set up, serving different types of blood. “Man, I was kinda poor as a human, but now that I’m a vampire I’m poor-poor.”

“Oh, don’t say the word ‘soup’ around me, please,” says their... tour guide? is that what she is? “That was my favorite thing as a human. I still wince at the mere mention of it.”

Gina grimaces. “Really? _Soup_ was your favorite thing?”

“Yes, it’s delightful.”

“My bad,” he apologizes. “Hey, just checking, is there a mental health department at this hospital?”

“Oh yeah,” Gina chimes in, “Jake needs to take his ADHD meds for school or he won’t function very... well.”

“Mental health department?” Their tour guide looks confused. “But all mental illnesses and disorders go away when you turn into a vampire.”

Jake’s vampire heart races and he actually starts feeling quite excited about this whole being a vampire thing. “Oh my god, really? That’s awesome!”

“Just kidding! Life doesn’t stop being miserable as a vampire, it just gets worse!” Their tour guide laughs, very grim of her, and also, quite frankly, a horrible prank to play, but whatever. “Our mental health department’s on level three. Just go up to the counter with your human doctor’s prescription and you’ll get the vampire version of whatever meds you need.”

Sensing his discomfort, and feeling like they’ve already reaped whatever knowledge they were seeking from this lady, Gina decides to dismiss her.

“Okay, I think we’ve got the hang of this. Uh... bye?” She grabs Jake and they move in the opposite direction as fast as they can. “Hey, you wanna go get something at that soup kitchen?”

“Sure.”

The biggest shock of his life happens when Jake arrives at the front of the line, and makes eyes with the man serving up his blood dinner.

“Oh my god, Mr Jeffords? You’re a vampire?”

The bulky man seems just as shocked. “Jake? Gina?”

“Oh shit, now I know why your muscles stayed this solid all these years,” says Gina, in absolute awe. Jake knows that this is just genuine admiration on her part though, not attraction, because Gina is a lesbian, also, Mr Jeffords has been teaching them for almost a decade, so it would be really gross if Gina was attracted to their gym teacher and he... reciprocated. Not that an attraction to a certain person implies that the certain person feels the same way, but well, you get it.

“How did the two of you–“ Mr Jeffords looks at a loss, upset, like he liked the both of them, cared about them enough, to not want this fate for them.

Jake’s about to answer when Gina cuts him off. “I mean,” she shrugs, trying to sound totally cool, but he can tell that she isn’t, which is a rare occurrence, “who even knows how things happen, right Terry?”

She silently kicks Jake in the back of his heel, and he hurriedly backs her up. “Uh, just teenagers being teenagers, right?”

Mr Jeffords sighs, resigned, like he knows there’s nothing he can do about this situation. “Well, I think Gina already knows this, but you kids can call me Terry. Since we’re all vampires.”

“Oh...” Jake smiles, liking the fact that he gets to be special, and call a teacher by their first name. “Thanks Terry.”

“Just not in school though,” he warns, accidentally flicking blood on their faces when he gestures while holding the ladle, “we don’t want any other kids catching on.”

“Yes, Mr Terry. Uh. Mr Jeffords. Uh, Ter–“

“What blood do you want, Jake?”

“Actually, can we get this blood to go? We’re late for picking up Jake’s meds,” says Gina, clearly in a rush to get out of here, as evidenced by how grossed out she is wiping blood off her face. It’s clear, though it barely shows most of the time, that she’s just as not used to being a vampire as Jake is. “We’ll take the ox blood, uh, stew.”

“Sure, coming right up.” He scoops up two bowls of what is clearly just boiled blood, but weirdly, the stuff smells amazing. Jake can’t wait to dig in. “I’ll see you kids in school, okay?”

 

* * *

 

Jake thought Gina was using his meds excuse to get them out of having to interact with Terry any more than they needed to, but it turns out she actually brought his doctor’s prescription with her to get his medicine. Apparently, that little tour they took was more for his benefit than hers, since she clearly knows more than him and was well-prepared to get what they need from this place. Well, maybe it benefitted her a little too. It did result in Jake asking her fewer questions, after all.

“Oh, ah,” the nurse attending to him at the counter nods. “So you have uh, the VADHD. Not a problem. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, Vay DHD?”

“Yes,” she says, unblinking. “Vampire ADHD.”

Why did he even ask? It was right there. He walked like, right into that.

“Is it just me, or are you also getting real sick of the vampire pu–“

“Gina?”

An unfamiliar voice saying a rather familiar name causes Jake, but surprisingly, not Gina, to turn around.

“Oh, hey,” he says, to a rather super emo, super mysterious girl who walks towards them. She has curly hair, alright, but her eyes look yearning and vulnerable, any danger that might’ve been there hidden away, and the truth is? You wanna know what the real truth is? Jake’s way more interested in her leather jacket than anything else at the moment. Because it is a super fucking cool leather jacket. Maybe he should start wearing leather jackets.

“Gina?” she says once more, a bit more unyielding this time, and with a sigh, Gina turns around, gives a huge, fake smile.

“Hey, girl! What’s up?”

Super cool leather jacket girl super coolly rolls her eyes. “Don’t ‘hey, girl, what’s up’ me.”

Gina clears her throat. “I don’t think the two of you have met. Uh, Jake, this is Rosa. Rosa, this is my best friend. Jake.”

“Oh, Rosa? Dope name. Cool jacket. D’ya know where I could get one of these? Anyway, yeah, I’m Jake,” he extends his hand amicably. “Nice to meet you.”

“I don’t do handshakes.”

He retracts his arm, embarrassed. “Oh, uh, okay. That a germ thing, or?”

“No,” she says, curtly, that single word explaining everything in a very crushing manner. She looks back at Gina, her eyes starting to display the aforementioned ‘danger’ Gina had described to him. “Gina. What are you doing here?”

“Uh, what are _you_ doing here?” she retorts rather childishly, but without her usual finesse, which Jake knows is very uncharacteristic of her. It seems that Rosa can apparently really unravel his best friend, leave her rattled, and he finds that rather interesting. “Aside from, well, not calling me. For a whole friggin’ week.”

Rosa narrows her eyes at Gina. “You never gave me your number.”

“Oh, really?” Gina swallows, keeping a composed and nonchalant state. “Oh well. My bad, I guess.”

“Here’s your Vadderall, sweetie!” the nurse from earlier returns, handing Jake a plastic bag filled with his prescription. Apparently, Vadderall is just blood capsules that contain a very high concentration of Adderall. But uh, he’ll save the fun facts for later.

“Wait,” Rosa’s forehead scrunches up. “Your friend’s a vampire? I thought you said you’ve never met one before.”

“Well, I am a vampire now, after, uh, Gina turned me,” Jake explains, since it’s clear from her venomous tone that she thinks Gina was lying. However, the way Rosa’s eyes widen in panic after he says this paints a story Jake doesn’t quite understand.

“This, this–“ she seems to be rather baffled, though her voice remains a gravelly low–“no way. I thought, I thought that was a dream. There’s no way I turned you.”

Jake’s not sure he’s even involved in this conversation, as much as he wants to believe he is.

“Well, wake up, Diaz. This is me now. I’m your work of vampire art, I guess.”

“I, but I blacked out that night.” It appears that whatever’s going on here is more than meets the eye. “I didn’t know any of this, that this–“

“You didn’t know?” she huffs. “Wow. You ruined my life and you just. You had no idea. That really says so much of you as a person,” her words are spat like poison. Rosa looks very taken aback, like millions of thoughts run through that mind of hers.

“Hey uh,” Jake pipes up, worried, addressing Gina’s little backhanded insults. “You know you turned me on purpose right?”

“Jake, lets go,” she declares, either painfully ignoring him or just plain not hearing him because she wasn’t paying attention. He’s not sure he wants to know which it is. “We’re done here.”

 

* * *

 

A few days later, Jake’s pretty much settled into being a vampire by now. It’s like a walk in the park.

Sike! Well, that’s a self-burn more than anything, because Jake struggling to handle being a newly minted vampire as well as regular human life... is daunting as it is really fucking weird.

One thing stays constant though. He’s late for first period. And because he’s so lucky, it’s his first day back at school, _and_ he’s got Holt for the next... less than an hour. Because he’s late, remember?

All the dread builds up very quick and reaches a climax when he’s about a few steps away from the door. Should he just skip this class? Go off to the water fountain or survey the cafeteria to see what’s for—oh right, never mind—the vampire thing. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to check, right?

“Peralta, I can see you stalling.” Crap! He decides to walk in, albeit very embarrassed and feeling super awkward. “Four years of high school,” his disappointed teacher remarks, “and we couldn’t even teach you punctuality.”

“You’re right, sir, it’s the school system that’s failed me–“ he points out, only to receive a glare from his teacher and thunderous laughter and applause from the rest of the class.

Okay fine, it’s just a few snickers here and there, but still, pretty fucking good for the first day of school, before anyone’s even fully adjusted to his style of humor, right?

“That’s enough, young man,” Holt says pointedly.

“Thank you, but actually, I think I identify as more of an _old_ –“

“You’re wasting time, Peralta. I’ve already assigned everyone a pair project partner for the year, and everyone else is sat accordingly. With the exception of you.”

“Oh,” this gets Jake rather sheepish for a moment, “sorry. Uh... who’s my partner?”

A very earnest hand from the front of the class shoots up just as Holt gestures to his partner. When he looks at her for the first time, he is rendered speechless. If he weren’t literally immortal, there’s a very good chance he would’ve died from the shock of seeing literally the most beautiful girl he’s ever laid his two eyes on. God, why does he only have two eyes? Someone this gorgeous needs to be viewed with like... maximum vision. And as far as he’s concerned, two eyes doesn’t exactly scream full potential. He wishes, for a moment, that he were a bee. Bees have more eyes than humans, right? Much much more, probably. Maybe like ten thousand eyes.

(He googles it later. Bees only have five eyes. Pathetic.)

“Uh...” he realizes he’s just been standing there and staring at her. Thankfully, he is not drooling. “Hey.”

“Peralta, we do not have _time_ to engage in any of this heterosexual nonsense. Please take a seat.”

Many of his classmates laugh, and it’s a bit insulting to know that the response to Holt’s heterosexual jab was much stronger than his jab about... what was it again? School systems? Anyway, he sits next to um, the goddess girl, but he’s antsy for something else to direct his attention and energy to, something to distract from whatever he’s feeling.

“Hey, uh, Mr Holt? You do know it’s technically not heterosexual behavior if the person you’re referring to is bi, right?”

He sighs, like he knows that Jake is right, but he’s still kind of tired of it. “I know, Peralta. You come out to me every year.”

“I’m just saying! Kind of biphobic of you to make such a like, blanket statement.” He shrugs. It’s probably worthwhile to note that Jake doesn’t recall coming out so much to Holt, but if he’s gonna throw around ugly words like “heterosexual” nilly willy, then what can Jake do, right?

“My apologies. Now, if you may, could you all start discussing your assigned project topics in your pairs?”

“Hey,” Jake turns to her with an unstoppable speed, feeling red hot now that he has to make eye contact. “I’m Jake. So... uh, what’s up with you?”

She snorts, and it’s a nice consolation, seeing her smile, at least.

“Aren’t we supposed to be discussing our project?”

“Well,” Jake smirks, “would be easier to do that if I actually knew your name.”

“Oh!” she perks in shock, which Jake is highly amused by. She seems genuinely apologetic, like she really didn’t catch that. “I’m uh. I’m Amy. Amy Santiago.”

She extends her hand, and Jake gleefully shakes it, grateful to meet someone who not only doesn’t reject his offers for a handshake, but in fact actively offers one. Amy gives a good handshake, and Jake decides not to question it, or comment on it. She probably learnt how to do that at a seminar somewhere. She seems like the type to go for seminars.

“So... Amy,” he begins, “you new here? Because well,” he looks up at Holt, who’s staring at papers, grading work for students. That dude never seems to catch a break. “No one sits in front for a Holt class unless it’s literally your first time.”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Holt’s been a teacher of mine for all four years of high school.”

“So you _voluntarily_ sit up front?” Jake says incredulously. “Wait, that’s not the point. If you had Holt all four years, and I had Holt all four years, how have I never seen you before?”

She shrugs. “I don’t think it’s that big a deal, Jake. Maybe we just never sat next to each other in class.”

“Or we had different classes with him. I mean, no way I’m forgetting someone as beautiful as you.” This makes Amy tilt her head down, looking away from him. Oh, crap. Why’d he have to blurt that out? Now he’s making things super weird, making her super creeped out, and making himself wanna super die. Except he can’t. Fuck this being a vampire shit! He can’t even spontaneously combust anymore (which is apparently a thing that can happen to humans), he’s gotta, find someone to chop his head off or make a stake, or, uh, eat a ton of garlic.

“Peralta and Santiago, please do stay on task.”

This changes Amy’s entire disposition. She looks both super scared and kind of super pissed at the same time, which is a super nerdy reaction to getting nagged at by Holt, but it kind of doesn’t matter to Jake. It’s kind of endearing, actually. Cute.

“Oh my god,” she whispers harshly, refusing to look in Holt’s direction, but also glaring at Jake. “You got us into trouble!”

“I got us into what now?” he whispers back just as quietly and harshly. “You talked to me just as much as I talked to you!”

“No I didn’t!”

“I’m pretty sure I saw you laugh at plenty of what I said,” he says smugly, “even before I sat down here.”

She goes properly red in the face this time. Oh, this is lovely. Oh, he loves this. “How... how did you know that?”

He nearly bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, I was just messing with you. You—no way—you really thought I was that funny?”

She scowls, which is also very cute, and turns away from him. “I’m not talking to you right now.”

“Too scared to admit how funny you think I am?” She ignores him, which is expected. “See, this is why it’s good to sit in the back,” he says, keeping his voice down so Holt won’t check on them. “We can talk and laugh to our heart’s content.”

“Well, I’m not exactly interested in that,” she seethes, and for a moment Jake worries he’s actually angered her. He can take it a bit too far sometimes, be too intense, too much to handle. “I will only talk to you, if it’s about our project.”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he says, biting his lip just a little. “I promise I’ll be serious now. Uh, you just gotta tell me, what’s our project on?”

She opens up this neatly folded slip of paper to show him as she reads out what’s on it.

“Vampires.”

 


	2. saw a snail today... effervescent

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kylies not gonna b like show canon kylie bc i mmm dont wanna
> 
> also henlo from china, sadly i can’t access tumblr rn, so if ur reading this i either already posted a link on my blog or ur subscribed to me/this fic/u check the fic tag a lot?

Second periods are never usually lonely for Amy. She gets to hang out with her best friend, and they have the laziest teacher on hand. As much as Amy respects teachers and educators and authority figures, she sees not one ounce of... anything to respect in Mr McGintley. He teaches English, which is perhaps the most apt subject for him to be in charge of. Amy shudders at the thought of him teaching anything else. She’s constantly shuddering at the fact that he’s ‘taught’ her for four years. Every time a McGintley class rolls around, he assigns them a generic essay to write and falls asleep.

No one writes his essays by now, not even Amy. He never grades them. At this point, Kylie’s convinced her that having a good chat in class helps hone both their English skills much more than trying to do anything of importance... academically? It’s kind of how they became friends. Some of their favorite pastimes in this class include playing trivia games, doing cool crosswords, and telling each other what they’ve had to deal with recently, good or bad.

Right now, Kylie’s ranting about something that happened when she was at her locker, someone was... rude? Insolent? Scary? Unfortunately, and regrettably, Amy isn’t listening that closely. There’s just something... someone she can’t get out of her mind, and she can’t explain why they’ve made such an impact.

“And she was just running around, threatening people with that stupid switch blade—the security here is so shit—and going off about a... who was it again? Some Gina Linetti, I think that girl’s in our grade, she was like, _hunting_ that–“

“Hey, do you know Jake Peralta?”

Kylie stops short in her tracks, able to sense that her usually sympathetic friend has got something important (and thus, interesting for Kylie) on her mind right now.

“Uh, know him? He’s only like, the _most_ popular guy in school.”

Amy reacts with her entire body, like she’s been shaken, she’s flabbergasted, her eyes wide in that way that always gets Kylie cracking up, and she does so.

“God, your face. Girl, baby, I’m just kidding.” She laughs again at the way Amy deflates in mild irritation. “No idea who he is. Why? Who’s he?”

“Just... my project partner. I met him in first period, and the both of us have been Mr Holt’s students for all four years of high school. But we’ve never met until now. Is that weird? Or is it perfectly normal?”

“This Jake guy... is he your new best friend now?” Kylie gets even more excited when Amy begins to protest. “Oh oh oh... don’t tell me: is he your new _prey?”_

Amy looks around in fear to make sure no one heard that. “Of course he isn’t Kylie, oh my god! Please don’t say things like that in public.”

“Fine fine,” Kylie rolls her eyes. She makes a zipping motion next to her lips. “Fort Knox.”

 

* * *

 

“Diaz.”

Rosa’s never been this relieved to hear anyone say any part of her name. When she turns around, the sight of Gina gets her heart pumping, and for some reason, she feels a deep sorrow within. Why does she get this urge to cry? To weep? Like every look is stolen, every touch is treasure found, any contact fleeting. She doesn’t even get this emotional watching a Nancy Meyers movie, and those things are goddamn cinematic masterpieces. What exactly has Gina Linetti done to her?

“Heard you were looking for me.”

Her heart is pumping like it never has before. Does it get worse the more they meet?

“Yeah,” she manages to say, quickly swallowing whatever bitter taste she had in her mouth.

Gina crosses her arms, skeptical, leaning against her locker, where Rosa had been waiting, after literal hours of tracking her down. Why it was almost next to impossible to find Gina Linetti in her own school, Rosa doesn’t know.

“So, you stalk people now? That part of the vamp gig?”

“I was _looking_ for you.”

“Looking, stalking. Doesn’t take all that much to go from one to the other.”

As drawn as Rosa is to her, Gina can be insufferable. Unfortunately, she’s insufferable in the best way possible. Unfortunately, she’s insufferable in the way no one else could ever dream of being.

“Fine, I’ll bite,” Gina continues when Rosa doesn’t say anything aside from the silent expressions on her face. “Why were you looking for me, oh master of mine? Or should I say, _old_ master of mine. Who knows how old you really are, right?”

“We’re the same age, idiot. And I’m not your–“ she winces uncomfortably at the notion–“master. God, that’s so gross.”

“Really?” Gina takes a step closer. “You’re not? I thought that’s why you turned me...”

Rosa shuts her eyes for a moment as Gina’s soft hand grasps her cheek.

“Thought you wanted me to be... all yours.”

She gulps, blinking carefully, refusing to face Gina. Her current worst fear is that she’ll feel the restless heart in her chest. And know that it’s all for her.

Gina steps back a second later, and her demeanor completely changes, like she hadn’t been all up in Rosa’s space, seducing her with far too much ease. Something deep within Rosa knows there’s no need for seduction. Knows that for some strange reason, Gina could wag a finger and she’d come running.

“Guess that was just me though,” Gina shrugs. “This was cool. Have a great life.” She turns around and walks away like she’s leaving forever, so Rosa pulls her back.

“Wait!”

“What?”

She feels like the dirt beneath her shoe, the way she chases her away with the tone of her voice.

“Look... I just wanna help. I uh, I mean,” she fumbles, clearing her throat, like she’s lying, which is both true and untrue. “This whole thing was an accident. Fucking hell, I don’t know how it happened. But it was... It was shitty of me. To turn you without asking, okay? Let me help you out.”

Gina scoffs like everything Rosa’s just said makes it all worse. Right now, her perception of what Gina thinks of her just dropped to... that of absolute scum. Something Gina wouldn’t keep on the bottom of her worst flip flops.

“Whatever. I’m doing just fine. Thanks for the offer though,” she says, dry and with a truckload of sarcasm.

But it’s her walking away faster than Rosa can catch that hurts the most.

 

* * *

 

“Man, I’m so sorry, Rosa.”

“Boyle.” She sighs, covering her face partially with a hand. “You gotta stop apologizing to me whenever I see you.”

“I know,” he says, “did you find uh... Gina?”

“Yeah,” she says, scowl on her face. “Huge waste of time. I should’ve never hooked up with her.”

It’s true. Gina isn’t one of many strings of lovers Rosa has. In fact, if she were to make a list of all her past lovers, she’d pretty much just write ‘Gina Linetti’ down on a slip of paper. Rosa isn’t even sure what overcame her the night they spent together. It was a complete dream, in that she never felt so free before, and also in the sense that she barely felt present. She was floating, walking on air. When she turned Gina though, that was the most out of control she’d ever been her whole life.

Not that she’s ever truly been in control of her life, to be fair. Her parents are ridiculously strict, almost never let her outside, and it got way worse when she turned eighteen. She was informed of their family’s arrangement with the Boyles, how she was and still is betrothed to Charles Boyle. The whole thing is completely unfair. None of her siblings have to deal with her share of life. They’re free to live their lives as they like, date and marry whomever they want. Rosa has no idea why she’s the only one being punished like this.

Charles is the least of her resentments, though. He’s been nothing short of nice to her, and completely understanding of the fact that she kind of... rejects this union. They’ve become friends, even, planning to make their future wedding nothing more than a fun party for the both of them, and the people they care about. Their future marriage nothing more than a buddies-living-together situation. Rosa should maybe consider herself lucky her parents don’t expect or demand children from her. They don’t discourage it, obviously, but Rosa’s made it clear she’s not doing the housewife and kids thing. Not with Charles. And especially, not the housewife thing. So they dropped it early on and placed their bets on her siblings, who have since made her aunt many a time. Every now and then, when she sees through the chains and shackles, Rosa feels as if her parents aren’t making her life a living hell out of choice, like the trap they’ve set is supposed to shelter her. Protect her from something worse than arranged marriages and strict rules.

“Why wouldn’t she want your help?” she hears him say. Right. They haven’t moved on from this topic of discussion yet.

“I don’t know. She’s like. Crazy independent I guess.”

“Maybe you should just tell her you’re soul–“

Rosa socks Charles in the stomach before he can finish that sentence.

“Ow!”

“Don’t say that here.”

“There’s no one else here!”

“We don’t know it’s that,” she says, reassuring herself more than anything, “there’s no _way_ it’s that.”

Ah, soulmates. The very thing humans covet and search for their whole lives, terrifies all vampires. Those that know about it, at least. Rosa’s been warned against looking up anything related to it, but from what she knows, soulmates in their species are incredibly rare, and to have one... is unimaginable danger.

She wouldn’t wish something like that on anyone. Most of all, she hopes she hasn’t brought this fate down on Gina.

“I mean... there are signs to–“

“Yeah, well, I don’t wanna know those fucking signs, okay?”

He gestures for her to calm down, and as his way of apologizing to her. “Okay. We won’t think about that right now. Wanna watch The Holiday?”

Rosa collapses on the couch. There’s nothing she wants to do more right now, for certain. Or, to be more accurate, she’s too scared to do anything else. “Yeah, sure.”

 

* * *

 

“Woah, slow down there, steamroller,” Jake teases, helping Amy up from the floor. They’re both on their way to class, presumably, and they’ve had a little accident. Crashing into each other, mainly.

“God, I’m so sorry,” she apologizes sheepishly, rubbing the area of impact. “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“Isn’t this so weird? It’s like, we didn’t know each other for four years, but now we can’t stop bumping into each other. Literally.”

Nothing about what he said was at all witty or funny, but he still throws a nervous laugh at the end, prompting a polite giggle from Amy, who drags a tendril behind her ear.

“Hey, while I have you here–“ Amy whips out her phone, unlocking it–“is it okay if I got your number?”

He can’t help it, his face breaks out into a huge grin. “God, Amy,” he says, taking the phone so quickly it’s like she gave him a time limit. “Not gonna lie, I am flattered, but you know our relationship is strictly business,” he finishes keying his number in, saving his contact as _Jake (Super Sexy)._

She bites her lip and doesn’t laugh in spite of her wide smile. “Stop it! You know this is just for project correspondence purposes.”

“Project correspondence? You sure about that?” Jake, who still holds onto her phone, immediately dials his number, and picks up the call on his line. “Hello, Jake–“ he speaks into her phone, putting on a bizarre impression of her that isn’t at all offensive, thankfully, but so strange that Amy can’t help but crack up–“I’m Amy Santiago and I think you’re super cute!”

She grabs his phone and snatches it away from him, still laughing, the thought of rushing to class completely slipping her mind. Jake has to note that he loves how she stole his phone instead of taking her phone back. “Hello, I’m Jake Peralta,” she tries to do an impression of him as well, and it just might be the funniest thing he’s ever heard in his entire life. “I don’t believe you at all because I’m not cute, and I know you’d never date me.”

“Wait,” Jake brings her phone back up to his ear. This might be the strangest phone conversation ever. They’re on each other’s phones pretending to be the other, and they’re standing face to face. It’s the best call he’s ever made. “Who said anything about wanting to date?”

Amy’s face goes red. “You did!” She breaks character in the process, and watching the look of horror on her face is worth the collapse of their strange role play. He is in love—maybe not with her just yet—but definitely with this very moment. He’s caught Amy in a little spot, a strange upper hand in the form of _haha I ACTUALLY did not mention the concept of dating you but you brought it up._ Check fucking mate.

“That is crazy talk,” he points at her, covering his mouth like it’s a shocking revelation that’s relevant on a national level. “Oh my god, admit it! You wanna date me!”

“No I don’t!” She vehemently denies this, protests with all her might. “In your dreams, Peralta.”

“Well, jokes on you,” he says in a childish voice, “I haven’t slept since first period, so, I’ve had zero dreams about dating you. Hah!”

“First period was a few hours ago, Jake. Of course you wouldn’t have slept during that time,” she says in a similar tone of voice, despite making a regular sensible point. As they engage in this pointless argument, they gradually move closer into each other’s personal spaces, wanting to get all up in the other’s face. Their voices remain intense throughout the following exchanges.

“Jokes on you, I sleep a lot in class.”

“Well, you should probably stop sleeping so much and pay better attention.”

“You’re right, education is important and I shouldn’t be throwing this opportunity away–“

The flow in their heated confrontation snaps when they get caught by a teacher patrolling the hallways.

“Amy Santiago? What are you doing in the hallways—class started five minutes ago!” She turns to Jake. “And you, boy! Shouldn’t you be in class too? I don’t see any hall passes.”

“Thanks for having no idea what my name is, that does a lot for my self esteem!” Jake calls after the teacher who ignores him as she disappears down the next corner.

“Oh crap, I’m so late!” Amy starts to gather her things properly, and begins to run. “I have to go!”

“Wait!” Jake grabs her and pulls her back, laughing, but not too carefree in manner to avoid stressing Amy out further. “We gotta swap our phones back first,” he quickly makes the switch, putting Amy’s phone smack in her hand. “Okay, now go, go, go!” She takes off running in shock and Jake laughs as he watches her leave. “Run Amy, run!”

 

* * *

 

“Wait, so you blew her off again?”

“I mean, on one hand, you could assume that I’m just playing hard to get, but also–“ Gina groans, getting tired of stirring the big bowl of dough mixture, handing it to Jake for his turn–“she’s a _literal_ bloodsucking vampire.”

“Oh, and _we’re_ not bloodsucking vampires?”

“You know what I mean,” Gina sighs, cracking an egg in a new big bowl to start their brownie mixture. They’re helping their moms for the upcoming bake sale at the high school they work at. Usually, Gina’s not a fan of hard labor, but baking she likes. She finds it therapeutic. Jake’s baking too because he has no say in the matter and him letting Gina do all the baking would be a real dick move. Also, she would totally beat him up for it.

“I mean,” Jake shrugs, “she was at the vampire hospital the other day. She probably gets her blood fixes there too, right?”

“It’s not about that,” Gina sighs, pulling down her turtleneck to reveal her neck. “It’s about how she did _this_ to me.”

“This would be a lot more dramatic and obvious if there was anything there,” Jake says, pointing out how there’s no like, bite marks or anything on her neck.

Gina scoffs, releasing her hold. “Whatever, you get what I mean. She sucked me dry, Jake. In both ways.”

They both giggle at that, unable to help themselves, and exchange sick high fives.

“But, yeah, I get that. Uh... it was irresponsible for her to do that because she could have killed you?”

“Pft, no! Who cares about that, I’m pissed because she was clearly just using me for like, my amazing human blood, or something. And she didn’t even _ask_ , she just went for it. And then she turned me, meaning I can never stay away from what she did. I can never pretend it didn’t happen.”

“But I thought she didn’t know what happened.” He raises his hands in defense, “not tryna make excuses for her, because if she really only hooked up with you to trick you for blood, that’s super messed up. I just... feel like there’s something else going on. I mean, why would she use you to drink your blood only to turn you, meaning she can’t drink your blood anymore? Plus, she seems like she really wanted to help you out, right?”

“But is that because she likes me, or because she feels guilty about what she did?”

Jake stirs his dough mixture in silence for a moment as he thinks this over, and all he knows to say is “maybe a bit of both?”, causing Gina to shrug.

“Guess we’ll see.” She sighs as she begins pouring her brownie mix into the tray. “She is so hot though,” she continues as she moves the tray into the oven. “It’s like, I _know_ her strap is big.”

“It probably is,” he says absentmindedly, opening a bag of chocolate chips. “Hey, do you think Amy has a big strap too?”

Gina makes a face of confusion, but not exactly one of curiosity. “What? Did you say Amy?”

“Yeah...” Jake looks wistful, in his own world by now.

“Who the hell is that?”

Realizing Gina has no idea who he’s talking about snaps him out his trance. “Oh, uh...” he begins nervously, trying not to give away how he feels about Amy. “My pair project partner. She’s cool I guess.”

“Uh huh. And you wanna fuck her.”

Jake accidentally flings the spoon he’d been holding against the fridge like Gina’s revelation is a wet hand against an open electrical outlet.

“Whaaaaaaat?” he laughs it off like it’s a silly joke, picking up the spoon in fear of his own desires and Gina’s intuition. How does this girl know him so well? “That, that’s crazy talk. Where’d you get that idea?”

She’s not very amused by this display. She’s slightly amused, because Jake’s never been this insane before, but mostly, she’s not that amused. “I mean, you did just openly wonder if she had a big strap, so, what was I supposed to think?”

“Oh, I, uh, I—I said that?”

“Word for word, girl.”

Jake scratches his head. “Well, guess it’s too bad I have no idea what a strap is.”

Gina bursts out laughing. “No! No, you’re not pulling that shit with me. You know you know what a strap is.”

“Is that like, a gun?”

She flicks cocoa powder at him, still laughing. “Shut up!”

 

* * *

 

The first time Jake ever sees Holt let out a genuinely hearty laugh is right now, this morning, at this very moment, when he’s walking into class.

To Holt’s credit, Jake is the only person currently sat in class, having arrived even before his teacher. It’s funny because he’s notorious for being late, right? Haha, ha, yeah, that’s the only reason why this is funny. And it has a completely reasonable explanation too! It’s uh... it’s because... Jake is a vampire now! And vampires don’t need as much sleep as humans do. Presumably. I mean, what vampire died from not getting enough sleep, right?

“Hey...” Jake debates what to say as he drags out this word. “Uh, school hasn’t started yet, right? Can I call you Holt? Or, or Raymond?”

“No, you may not,” Holt responds in his regular tone of voice, free of amusement. “I feel I should inform you... she usually arrives fifteen minutes before eight. You’re ten minutes too early.”

“Cool cool cool cool cool,” Jake acknowledges, nodding. “Have no idea who you’re talking about, but cool.”

Holt lets out a slow and closed-mouth chuckle. “As long as you continue to show up early for classes, I shall say nothing of the matter.”

Jake changes the way he sits, his head clearly sparked with an idea, a plan. “Sir, since I’ve just become your like, best student–“

“That is not true.”

“–I can ask for anything I want in exchange for good behavior like this punctuality stuff, right? That’s how it works?”

“No, it does not.”

Jake leans forward in his seat. “I’ll cut you a deal: I’ll be the first one here, every day, but I get to pick where me and Amy sit.” Holt doesn’t look impressed. “If, if, I show up late even once, or you’re not impressed with my progress in the project... we go back to sitting in front, or wherever you wanna put us.”

“Just once and you will go back, with no arguments?”

“None from this guy,” he promises, pointing to himself with his thumb.

“And if you do argue?”

“You get to... publicly humiliate me in any way you want and I won’t call social, uh, teenager services.”

Holt makes a face, largely due to his lack of knowledge regarding his rights. “What makes you think I might want to do anything like that?”

Jake shrugs. “Who wouldn’t?”

Holt sighs, like he’s unsure why he’s still participating in this interaction. “What do I gain from this wager if you succeed?”

“Uh... I won’t be late anymore, meaning I don’t disrupt your class? And I’ll give double my effort for this project–“ he gets this confident look–“sir, you _know_ I give a good presentation.”

Holt continues to ponder over this for a moment. “You have... a deal.”

“Yes!” Jake pumps his fist in the air, wild with excitement, but not too wild so as to ensure his arrangement with Holt holds up.

“Make your pick, Peralta.”

Jake’s eyes scan the classroom. Back row desks? No... that would make Amy far too uncomfortable. She’d be too worried about focusing to make sure she doesn’t miss out on the action (Holt teaching them stuff), and that would just end up making things worse than being sat all the way up front. Jake picks a spot somewhere in the middle of the rows, but sticks with desks nearer to the front than the back.

As he sits, Holt nods in approval of his choice, and this happens just before Amy walks in. She’s shocked to see Jake, but then seems to remember that she shouldn’t be too shocked to forget her manners, and bows a full ninety degrees for Holt.

“Good morning Mr Holt,” she greets hastily and out of sorts.

“Good morning,” Holt nods, gesturing in Jake’s direction. “For the time being, the both of you shall be occupying those tables. Please have a seat.”

“Oh,” Amy says, clearly wanting to follow Holt’s instructions, but also a tiny bit nervous about not being sat all the way up front, and there’s something else in her expression that Jake can’t infer yet. “May I ask–“

“Jake Peralta wishes to flirt with you.”

Holt drops that bomb which explodes in Jake’s heart. How could he do this? How dare he? Has he no pity?

Amy bites her lip, looking away from them both, definitely feeling super awkward and resentful of Jake. Oh my god, she must’ve just declared Jake her worst enemy, hasn’t she? She hates him, doesn’t she?

“That’s–“ he tries to save this situation–“Mr Holt’s just messing with me. Right? Sir?”

He nearly says _please_ but his eyes say it louder than his lips ever could. Holt looks blankly at him before saying “yes”, monotonously, then “one of the students’ eyesight has been deteriorating.”

“Yeah,” says Jake, so grateful Holt didn’t lay him out to waste, “we got bumped back because we have perfect eyesight.”

“I wear contacts, but since I have the luxury of that...” Amy takes her seat next to Jake, “I should be able to see much better than whoever needs to sit up front.”

“You are so considerate,” he tells her, before leaning in closer to whisper, “let me guess, you always come in early enough to be the first student in class, but you always make sure you come in after Holt so that you don’t undermine his authority, right?”

Amy’s eyebrows jump up as high as they can go on her forehead. “How...” she grabs her elbows like she’s got goosebumps. “You’re... you’re good.”

“Oh yeah, I’m a total 21st century Sherlock Holmes.”

She clears her throat quietly, eyes flicking over to Holt, who’s grading papers again. He really should stop assigning so much homework if he doesn’t want to just be constantly marking stuff. But then again, not everyone has the same idea as he does.

“Hey, so,” she gets into her class mode, she’s obviously more on guard knowing that Holt is right there and there’s only two of them in class. This makes Jake slightly regret his deal with Holt, but then again, maybe he won’t. Who knows how things’ll change when class starts and all the other delinquents roll in right on time, right? “Any ideas for our project?”

“Uh... well, ‘vampires’ is a very broad topic,” he shifts uncomfortably, “that I uh, totally know nothing of.”

“That is true,” Amy nods, looking just as uncomfortable as he. Oh man, is she disappointed that he doesn’t know anything about vampires?

“But uh,” he perks up, “I do know one thing!” he looks around, leaning in to whisper, “there’s this like, secret vampire hospital I heard of. We could go there and... look for inspiration?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was so hard to post bc im on mobile,,, pls leave me kudos n a comment


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